Here is part 1 of Uzramma's account of Dastkar Andhra's association with the great K V Chandramouli, Requiem for a Master:

The first experience we had of "Sir", K V Chandramouli, was when we took him to Eluru to teach natural dyeing to woolen carpet weavers. We had heard of him as the authority on natural dyeing and had persuaded the Andhra Pradesh Handicrafts Corporation to appoint him as a consultant. It was 1989, he had just retired from Government service, and Dastkar Andhra was a fledgling group working with artisans in Andhra. Annapurna was 22, an electronics engineer in revolt and a trained Carnatac singer. Salim was a driver & I was a retired housewife in my later forties. I had done some reading on natural dyeing in the old Bristish gazetteers but the other two were completely new not only to natural dyeing but also to any kind of craft production.

Those first workshops in Eluru set many of the traditions of our association with Sir. In those days artisans were not convinced of the value of natural dyeing and not prepared to put in the hard work it involved. They would wander off and Annapurna and Salim would be left to handle the wool. Sir was unfailingly cheerful, never fazed by lack of response, always ready to give his best and to teach whoever was there to learn. Clean to a fault himself he put up with grubby dak bungalow accommodation. In spite of his age and his heart condition - he was 62 and had already had two heart attacks - and his status as a world renowned specialist in natural dyes he cheerfully shared our bus and ricksha travel and ate uncomplainingly whatever food was available. The atmoshere of those workshops was full of enjoyment of each others' company, of the pleasure we got from learning and Sir from teaching. Waiting for the water to boil of the dyes to cook Annapurna would sing Kannada songs for Sir. Guruppa Chetty, a leading Kalamkari artist from Kalahasti and his son Niranjan who had known Sir since childhood and called him Tatha, grandfather, were also part of our team. Guruppa would recite verses from the Puranas and tell stories. That's how Annapurna and Salim started in natural dyeing.

In Eluru we worked with wool using hired cooking vessels that has to be scrubbed of grease before we started and of colour after we finished. We dyed at the roadside tap, drying the wool on the pavement. The weavers were sceptical until they saw the beautiful colours we got: blue from indigo, rusty red from madder root, yellow from myrobalan and pomegranate rind.

More to follow...

We hope to introduce malkha to a larger audience in Hyderabad through the Akruthi Vastra show organized by the Crafts Council of Andhra Pradesh. CCAP has kindly offered us a free stall in their popular annual exhibition.

Among recent visitors to the malkha shop were Sagari & Madhoo of Anthra, an organization that promotes rural livestock breeds. Elana Dickson, a well-known textile designer, has been working with them to adapt some of the iconic 'gongadi', the traditional all-purpose blankets made by the shepherd community, for urban use. We plan to host the first show of these at the malkha shop in early October. The picture shows some of the gongadi spread on the floor of the shop.

Three versions of Vaishali's imli print have just come in

The Vogue article in the June issue that mentions malkha is headed Karma Clothing and is written by Mayank Mansingh Kaul. It is about fashion designers who are ecologically and ethically sensitive, or basetheir work on traditional craft. Apart from the Malkha Project Mayank writes about the work of Joyjit Talukdar, Sonali Sattar & Himanshu Dimri and Mandeep Nagi. Of course there are gorgeous visuals to go with the text.

There is also a full article on malkha by Brinda Gill in the April issue of the trade magazine Apparel.

It is gratifying when people who buy malkha tell us that they enjoyed wearing it and want more, as Richa Jayal has recently posted on Facebook, and our current problem is to make it available for such customers. A few malkha garments are now available in Fabindia, but Malkha Marketing Trust itself has only the one outlet in Hyderabad. One possibility would be to do serious net marketing, a step forward from the orders-by-mail that we do now. The catalogue that is being uploaded on the web is the full one of all our fabrics, and we will have to keep it updated on current stock. Should we have a separate site from where we can take orders? Or should we make the present site a singin' dancin' one which does everything?

Hmmm. Will have to think about it.

We're told malkha features in the June issue of Vogue India, but have yet to see the issue, presume it's part of the coverage of the Malkha Project series of joint shows by the trio of Mayank Mansingh Kaul, Peter D'Ascoli & Aneeth Arora, each of whom use malkha in very very different ways. The next one of the shows is due in Bangalore in early July, not quite sure where.

Malkha was also mentioned as part of Tarun Tahiliani's Spring/Summer 2011 collection in the April issue.

Comments welcome as usual.